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The good old days of SEVERAL years ago....

HI ALL,

Who here remembers LOTRO in it's heyday? You know, when Ered Luin was full of people and new kinships, trade running up and down the road, people talking? I went around Falathlorn and Duillond today. It's really, really, really sad. Nobody. NOT A SINGLE PLAYER. No recruits, no newbies, no NOONE. I know, you get caught up in the new and exciting stuff to the far east, you pull the quick-travel skill off to make room for another, etc. You forget. I REALLY encourage everyone to take a trip there, at least once more in the next several weeks. Buy something from a vendor there, kill a level 1 enemy, do a quest you never did whatever. Just go back and remember what you did, where you did it. Musicians, play a song or two. Or just have a good /laugh or /Cry Command. Just go back there, go back to the old maps and places, refight the Dourhands, etc. Otherwise, nobody will. And LOTRO might decide it needs to save server room and get rid of it. And that would be the most tragic of all.

Findurian
PS I'm on the Imladris Server. Stop over sometime. I've still got the original vintages from the vineyard quest. I'll even wear the old Vinter's trousers. I'd be more than happy to share a cup of Fabled Dorwinion Wine.

Now you understand how the elves feel in their immortal life, or the old Bilbo when he's sitting next to the warm fire years after his 50 birthday, look out the window and recall the adventure with his friends. There are many things will never come back.

MMOs change over time. That is just the way of things, and people do not like change. I saw it in Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. Yes, there were changes that I did not like, such as the quest tracker, LIs, auto filled maps, and Hobbit presents. And anyone that knows me knows all too well how poorly I took that 3 year old beta forum. But there were also good changes, the biggest was Turbine laying the smack down on gold farmers and sellers, and I cannot recall the last time I saw gold spam on a chat channel.

I like the game a lot better then it was before. But that is only my personal enjoyment. It does not make me right.

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming "WOW, what a ride!"Continuing the never ending battle to keep Lobelia Sackville-Baggins in check

I actually go back to visit Celondim and Duilland, or Thorin's Hall every couple of months, very nostalgic and funto see. If I amaround Duilland for a festival or low level crafting mats I always recall the Scholar work orders you could purchase, before there were crafting instances. Or before there was even a place called Forochel!

It's summer time, or folks are focusing on the newer areas...many reasons not to be in old zones. Still, I always love seeing a toon race by when I am in older zones.

Recently levelling a character I started many years ago (I was saving him, for some reason), I can say there are still players around those areas, and the Shire. I really appreciate the fact that we can run anywhere we want in the game, zones are always "on". I need to visit Tom and explore the Old Forest on this character to continue Volume 1 (lol) so I look forward to that.

And if it makes you feel any better, a couple months back I was in the Prancing Pony and when I entered one of the rooms upstairs...there was this player rocking away on an instrument. All by themself, just filling the room with notes. Awesome.

I go back to alpha three (Turbine was at that stage giving out invites almost at random, and an online friend got a second invite and gave it to me).

I remember the early days of the rent-a-horses, particularly the one that was supposed to go from Duillond to Celondim and would INVARIABLY take a
left at the bridge and plunge to its (and your) death.

As others have pointed out from time to time, the biggest bulge in the player population curve, which was at the lowest levels at SoA launch, is now
roosting like a cave-full of bats under the 85 level cap. When HD opens they'll all take wing and scatter across the Westemnet.

For my part, I have alts as low as 17, doing the Bree-lands and the Lone-lands. I have one who's almost finished with Volume I of the Epic Books, and
when he finishes that he'll have to go to Gwingris and start Eregion properly. I have one who's just reached Galtrev and has not yet fought in the great
revolt.

The way Turbine has set up the passage of time in this game -- it's always spring in Celondim, it's always late September in the Shire, it's always late
December in Rivendell, and so on -- means that those long-ago days are not gone. You can roll another alt and revisit them whenever you want.

I go back to alpha three (Turbine was at that stage giving out invites almost at random, and an online friend got a second invite and gave it to me).

I remember the early days of the rent-a-horses, particularly the one that was supposed to go from Duillond to Celondim and would INVARIABLY take a
left at the bridge and plunge to its (and your) death.

As others have pointed out from time to time, the biggest bulge in the player population curve, which was at the lowest levels at SoA launch, is now
roosting like a cave-full of bats under the 85 level cap. When HD opens they'll all take wing and scatter across the Westemnet.

For my part, I have alts as low as 17, doing the Bree-lands and the Lone-lands. I have one who's almost finished with Volume I of the Epic Books, and
when he finishes that he'll have to go to Gwingris and start Eregion properly. I have one who's just reached Galtrev and has not yet fought in the great
revolt.

The way Turbine has set up the passage of time in this game -- it's always spring in Celondim, it's always late September in the Shire, it's always late
December in Rivendell, and so on -- means that those long-ago days are not gone. You can roll another alt and revisit them whenever you want.

When I started there were NO horse routes and you are right, the routes were painful when first introduced!

Games progress or they stagnate and wither. I'm looking forward to the 'epic conclusion'. It's one of the things that keeps me playing. As the game world gets larger, the population naturally gets more spread out.
With the enhanced XP for VIPs and increased speed of leveling, I find that I complete the starter areas so quickly that I am out of them in less than a week. Between the larger world and increased speed of leveling, the starter zones are not going to have as many players in them.

I was there, I remember when...

I also remember when there were no horses and everywhere you wanted to go you ran... and ran... and ran. Some of the changes have been good, but I am not too happy with the Hobbit Presents. I think this will throw the economy of the game out of whack. I still enjoy going to the old areas for visits, and taking my toons back to finish up their slayer deeds that I skipped ages ago.

However, I do have several toons at varying levels (one is capped out at 85, one is at 75, the rest are well below 50). So, it's nice to jump on a toon and go level in those quiet, not quite as populated areas.

But even so, it's not quite how I remembered it. I started over on Imaldris back then (since it was a new server) and I don't remember any of that. Okay, I had human characters so was more in Bree, but still, I never saw any guilds recruiting or people talking that much, other than the usual nonsense you see.

And I've started characters on probably half a dozen other servers in the last couple of years, to see what those servers are like. Usually you see a few people, it's not like it's completely deserted.

Why oh why do I always get to games that are past their prime? It could just be my server though... there are like 5 kins I've seen that raid etc but they don't recruit.. then there's kins with 12 year olds that invite everyone.. the kin I found runs instances with me, but they don't have many members and don't raid.. where do I have to go? :x

Why oh why do I always get to games that are past their prime? It could just be my server though... there are like 5 kins I've seen that raid etc but they don't recruit.. then there's kins with 12 year olds that invite everyone.. the kin I found runs instances with me, but they don't have many members and don't raid.. where do I have to go? :x

I suggest you try pvmp for a month and get to know the folks. Players interact much more in the moors then anywhere else in the game (open world)... Almost all the best players and raiders on Imladris used to pvp at some point.. So if you get yourself noticed, who knows, you might get an inv.. ...

I suggest you try pvmp for a month and get to know the folks. Players interact much more in the moors then anywhere else in the game (open world)... Almost all the best players and raiders on Imladris used to pvp at some point.. So if you get yourself noticed, who knows, you might get an inv.. ...

Not everyone likes lotro pvp as others. (Or anything pvp for that matter)

As for interactions. When I played freep for a short time, not many people even communicated for some time and kept to their own little cliques.
Who knows, maybe that changed since I logged on my freep from time to time.

As for interactions. When I played freep for a short time, not many people even communicated for some time and kept to their own little cliques.
Who knows, maybe that changed since I logged on my freep from time to time.

Nope that's pretty much the case now. It will take some time before you are "accepted" into the moors family. And to jango you will just be some useless squishy noob until you get all your audacity. Unless of course you are female.....

This is the type of population on a small-medium server (firefoot) back in the day in the Ettenmoors. Creep-side probably had near 50 players at this specific moment. There was a fraid out n about which can't be seen in the SS. The Moors was hoppin' in those days and loads of fun (and lag).

Nope that's pretty much the case now. It will take some time before you are "accepted" into the moors family. And to jango you will just be some useless squishy noob until you get all your audacity. Unless of course you are female.....

Well back in the day, the only thing jango was good at, was being fodder. It was hilarious really.. Now he leads raids... See, Isy, at one point everyone was a "useless squishy noob". (except nim ofc :P) At least now you have the excuse of not having aud...

-My House is there
-I have elves from Lindon and Edhellond so they sometimes get homesick (and yes, the former you cannot really get to, and the latter is destroyed)
-There are deeds which are really easy to complete
-Architecture

A warden of Lothlorien meets up a with a rune keeper from Lindon and a friendship is sparked. An elf hunter from Mirkwood finds a minstrel mourning the loss of Edhellen. A captain of Rohan rides to Bree and comes across a burned farm, the only survivor a young woman who'd defended herself with a rusted sword and axe. Thus many adventures begin.